All kids need a great education: Common Core as a Panacea
Bill Berezowitz and Tim Sheehy:
As the CEO of Manpower Group, Jeff Joerres knows a lot about what's required to fill the job needs of employers all over the globe, and as he has noted "we are in the human age, where economies compete and survive based mainly on talent."
Wisconsin's release of a new measure of student academic performance in grade and high school was a warning sign worth our attention ("Student scores slip with new standard," July 17). Credit goes to the state Department of Public Instruction, led by Superintendent Tony Evers, for its on-point and timely release of this new data showing how Wisconsin's students perform when we use a higher common standard to compare with students in other states.
The results were tough to swallow, 36% proficient in reading and 48% proficient in math on standards that are more representative of what is needed to compete nationally and globally. It looks as if we have been training our students on the low hurdles, when in reality we are running in an international high-hurdle race where jobs are the finish line.
We recently attended a conference sponsored by GE on this very topic. The national audience of business and education leaders came together to better understand the implications of all states adopting a common core set of standards to measure educational performance in K-12. Wisconsin has significant ground to make up.
Through the looking glass.
wisconsin2.org
Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 29, 2012 3:52 AM
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